How to get better at Nioh: 5 things everyone should keep in mind

How not to die, basically.

By
Shunal Doke

Nioh is not an easy game. In fact, its difficult is easily on par with From Software’s Soulsborne games, and that might put a lot of the more casual gamers off. While we’ve already talked about a few reasons why casual gamers should be interested in Nioh, we’re now here help you mentally prepare for the challenges that await you on the mystical demon-infested islands of Japan. Here are a few things that you should keep in mind when you’re playing Nioh.

Living Water, Ki Pulse and You

Ki Pulse is a fundamental skill you really have to get good at in Nioh to be able to progress through even the first actual level of the game. While the timing for Ki Pulse isn’t the easiest thing to keep in mind, thankfully, there are a few weapon skill you can pick up to make your life easier. The skills, dubbed Living Water, come in three variations – one for each stance – and once you get it on one weapon, you get it on all of them. Living Water essentially lets your dodges also act like Ki Pulses, which often makes fighting Youkai and dispersing Youkai Realms less stressful. And let’s not forget the boost to Ki regeneration proper pulsing will get you.

The right weapon for the right job

There’s really no such thing as a good or bad weapon type. It all comes down to taste. If you think dual-wielding katanas is awesome, go for it! Love how awesome the kusarigama attack animations look? Use it! All the weapons are practical, and have been balanced well enough to have strengths and weaknesses that make sense. The spear and kusarigama, for instance, have better range than your other weapons. The axe will hit slow but hard, and the dual katana will slice and dice as fast you can mash your buttons, but won’t really hit as hard as the other weapons. The single sword works kind of like a jack-of-all-trades weapon, coupling decent reach from its thrusting attacks with the quick strikes of dual-wielding. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different weapon types before settling on one you really like.

Stances are important

The first few hours of Nioh doesn’t introduce stances in any way, but once you hit the shores of Japan and a mysterious fishing village, you’re essentially thrown into the deep end when it comes to combat. As it turns out, stances tend to be less of a personal choice and more of a necessity. It’s really important to figure out what stance’s moveset works with which weapon against which enemy. The rapid-fire combos of the kusaragami’s high stance work really well against enemies that are easily flinched, while the mid-stance’s long-ranged attacks work better for when you need to maintain distance. Low stance tends to be universally great despite its low damage output because of its overall lower Ki consumption. And of course, skills like Flux and Iai Quickdraw reward quickly switching between stances at the right moments.

Kodama: adorable and practical

Kodama are adorable and make for a great quest for the completionists among us, but they also serve a really practical purpose. Find enough Kodama in an area and you start getting more healing Elixir every time you pray at a shrine. They also offer a bunch of different boons that can range from useful – like increased drop rates of elixir – really awesome – like increased armour and weapon drops. They’re also really cute. I seriously cannot emphasis enough on just how adorable the baby-like creatures are.

Levelling up and gear

Levelling up in an RPG always feels great. It gives you a real, tangible way to feel more powerful as the game goes on. In Nioh, however, levelling up doesn’t tend to be as important as you might think. Sure, it’s really useful to have more points in some stats, but the main boosts to your character are going to come from the effects of the various armour and weapons you’re going to collect and equip. And let’s not forget the Samurai, Ninja and Onmyo Magic skills. Levelling these skills up are insanely important, since they’re going to give you new combos and abilities to play with. Experimentation with these skills is very much encouraged, since you can always reset your skill points and start from scratch if you think you’ve made a mistake.